" is effervescent and satisfying, a crowd pleaser that does not condescend. And it is a crowd pleaser; the tumultuous audience response to "Curves" during screenings at this year's Sundance Film Festival made it a sure Dramatic Audience Award winner. (The movie, which opens the New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art tonight, also received a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for its ensemble cast.) It's rare to see a movie about two strong-willed women, let alone a film in which the one who's in the wrong is not painted unequivocally as a heartless villain. The generational conflict is set off between the blossoming Ana (America Ferrera), a Mexican-American teenager who has a chance to attend Columbia University on a scholarship, and her mother, Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros), who is determined that Ana follow convention and go to work with her in a Los Angeles sweatshop. Carmen's blithe cruelty comes out of love; she's ashamed of her daughter's zaftig figure and whittles away at Ana before the entire world.
"Real Women Have Curves
" is full of pitched battles and comic set pieces at the sweatshop, brought about when Ana joins her mother and older sister to make some extra money. A couple of the scenes may feel a bit contrived; the comedy is at times a little obvious. But this is more than made up for by the film's simplicity and directness. The shrewdness in "Curves" is that Ana is her mother's daughter: she gives as good as she gets. And the director, Patricia Cardoso, in her first full-length film, gives her puppyish star all the care that she deserves; it's a generosity we'd expect from a veteran. Ms. Cardoso is steady-handed, choosing against the blind pursuit of obsessive camera technique that's often the province of newly hatched filmmakers. (Maybe it's because she spent 10 years trying to get this film made.)
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